I don’t have anything decent in my fridge, so we order Chinese food and pour some wine and find a seat on my couch. I tuck my feet under me, taking a large sip of wine because it feels like something important is coming.
Seth sits facing me, his arm draped along the back of the sofa, his fingers gently grazing my shoulder. “I want to apologize, not just for all the miscommunication the past few years—back in college and even at the reunion—but for how I handled things the morning after we slept together.”
I reach over, placing a hand on his knee. “You don’t need to. You said everything you needed to in the article.”
“But that isn’t the same as saying it to your face. I’m sorry I hurt you. But I’m mostly sorry that I didn’t trust you to make the best decision for yourself. You’ve always known what you wanted, and gone for it, and I should’ve trustedyou when you said you could handle long-distance.” His fingers wrap around a strand of my hair.
“I’m sorry about the way I acted the morning after also. I wasn’t ready to acknowledge my feelings, even though you were right and it was already clearly more than just sex. I’m sorry I hurt you.” I lean over and place a soft kiss on his lips.
“Open communication from now on, yeah?”
“Deal.” I take another long sip of wine. “So now that your job at theChronicleis off the table, do you think you still want to stay in LA?”
He purses his lips. “Well... the job at theChronicleisn’t exactly off the table.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Oh?” I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this news since Seth’s position was clearly secured long before the stupid competition even existed.
“They still want to bring me in, but I turned it down.” He takes my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. “I don’t think I could ever work for someone who talked about you the way Natasha did on that stage. And even if she wouldn’t technically be my boss once I moved over to theChronicle, I still couldn’t stomach the thought of working for a company that lets that happen.”
I set my wineglass down on the coffee table. “I’ve been thinking about exploring other career options myself.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Natasha told me after you left the party that I wasn’t going to get the column. At least not until some unforeseeable spot just happens to open up, who knows when.”
His fingers tighten, first around the stem of his wineglass and then around my fingers. “What a bitch.”
“Yeah.” I breathe in and out, attempting to clear my anger. “I let her take advantage of me for a long time. I was so desperate for any maternal attention that I stuck around there way longer than I should have.”
“Have you started looking for jobs?”
“I have. And I started to publicize my blog a bit, though I don’t expect much to come of it financially. I’ve had it for a few years and I figure now is the time to make it public. I only wanted to wait to give notice atATFuntil my article went live. Didn’t want to chance her not publishing it.” I pick up our joined hands and kiss his. “What about you?”
“I’ve already been offered a new job, actually.” He swirls his wine around in his glass before taking a sip.
“Oh? Where?” My stomach tightens just a tad, wondering where he could be off to next. I know it doesn’t really matter, wherever it is we’ll make it work, but we just got here, and I don’t want to say goodbye yet. Or ever, really.
The corner of his lips curves up in a half smirk, half smile. “It’s at theLA Times.”
I punch him in the arm, not putting my full force into it since now my arms have some serious strength. “That’s amazing, you jerk.”
“You’re going to find something amazing too. Something you really love.”
“I really love you.” I plant a loud smack on his cheek.
“You have mentioned that once or twice.”
This time I go for the ticklish spot on his ribs, which he dodges, hopping up to collect our Chinese food delivery.
“Saved by the bell.”
We eat our dinner sitting cross-legged on the couch. I’m sure there’s something playing on the TV in front of us, but I couldn’t tell you what it is. We drink more wine and gobble down Chinese and talk about the future. Our future.
I don’t know exactly what it’s going to look like, but I do know it’s ours.
Epilogue
And they all lived happily ever after.
